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New Horizons took this picture of a volcanic eruption on Jupiter's moon Io. The plume from the volcano can be seen near the top of the image. The volcano is named Tvashtar.
Click on image for full size Image courtesy of NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute.

Results from the New Horizons Jupiter Flyby

The New Horizons spacecraft is on its way to Pluto. Along the way, it flew past the giant planet Jupiter. When the spacecraft flew by Jupiter, Jupiter's strong gravity gave New Horizons a "slingshot boost" in speed. The boost added 4 km/sec (9,000 mph) to the spacecraft's speed. That's quite a boost! The extra speed will make New Horizon's trip to Pluto take less time. Still, the spacecraft won't reach Pluto until 2015!

New Horizons blasted off in January 2006. It flew by Jupiter on February 28, 2007. It was going about 21 km/sec (47,000 mph) when it zoomed past Jupiter! But Pluto is very far away. Even at these high speeds, it will take New Horizons about nine years to go from Earth to Pluto.

Scientists took some great new pictures of Jupiter and gather other data when New Horizons flew past the planet. The spacecraft has very good cameras and other instruments on board.

The New Horizons team also got to practice a planetary flyby. When a spacecraft
flies past a planet, it needs to make a lot of complicated moves. It needs to
point its cameras the right way. It needs to turn instruments on and off at
the right times. And it needs to radio the data it collects back to Earth. The
New Horizons team got to practice all of this when the spacecraft flew
past Jupiter. Then they will be ready when New Horizons finally makes it to
Pluto!

New Horizons took many great pictures of clouds in Jupiter's atmosphere. It also gave scientists their first good look at the "Little Red Spot". The Little Red Spot is the "smaller cousin" of Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot. The Little Red Spot formed over the last several years when three smaller storms merged together .

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